ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Department of Transportation and its contractor, Fred Weber Inc., will close all lanes and ramps of Interstate 64 in both directions between Kingshighway and Forest Park Avenue at 8 p.m. Friday, March 7.

This closure is in conjunction with the City of St. Louis, to remove the pedestrian overpass over I-64 at Spring Avenue during the same timeframe.

The closure is weather permitting, and may be delayed due to temperatures or significant precipitation.

While the interstate is closed, crews will remove the Tower Grove and Boyle bridges over I-64 as part of a project to construct a new interchange at Tower Grove and Boyle and replace four bridges over the interstate. The ramps from McCausland, Skinker, Hampton, Kingshighway, and Papin, to eastbound I-64 will be closed during this time. In addition, the ramps from Pine, Jefferson, Market and Grand to westbound I-64 will be closed during this time.

Crews will reopen the interstate and all ramps by 3 a.m. Monday, March 10.

The closure is weather permitting, and may be delayed due to temperatures or significant precipitation.

The detour for westbound I-64 will be to get off the interstate at the Forest Park Avenue exit (exit 38A) and follow Forest Park Avenue to Kingshighway. After turning left onto Kingshighway, drivers will follow Kingshighway back to the interstate. The detour for eastbound I-64 will be to get off the interstate at the Hampton Avenue exit (exit 34B), turn right on Hampton and follow it to eastbound Interstate 44. Drivers can then take I-44 to the Poplar Street Bridge. Detour maps are available on-line at http://tinyurl.com/i64detour0113

The Tower Grove bridge has been closed since January for utility work. The Boyle bridge will close after morning rush on March 7. Crews will replace both bridges and are expected to have them back open to traffic by mid-June. On I-64 in both directions, traffic remains shifted into three 10-foot lanes near Tower Grove.. The Vandeventer Avenue ramp to westbound I-64 will remain closed, as will the Vandeventer Avenue ramp from eastbound I-64.

MoDOT will keep three lanes open in each direction on I-64 between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays. Overnight and weekends, the department will close up to two of those open lanes for construction work.

Tower Grove and Boyle will remain closed over the interstate until bridge work is completed in mid-June. Drivers can use the new bridges at Taylor and Newstead to detour around the closures. Cyclists and pedestrians can use Taylor, the pedestrian crossing between Kingshighway and Taylor, or Newstead to detour around the closure. More information on upcoming work will be released when it becomes available, and will be shared on the project webpage at: http://tinyurl.com/towergve2013.

Washington University in St. Louis and BJC HealthCare have partnered with the department on the project. Construction is expected to continue until July 2014.